page_title: Nagano (city)
section_title: 1998 Winter Olympics and Paralympics
hierarchical_section_title: Nagano (city) / History / 1998 Winter Olympics and Paralympics
caption_attribution_description: English: The Shinkoji Loop Bridge on the Asakawa Loop Line日本語: 浅川ループラインの真光寺ループ橋
context_page_description: Nagano is the capital and largest city of Nagano Prefecture, located in the Nagano Basin in the central Chūbu region of Japan. Nagano is categorized as a core city of Japan. Nagano City is the highest prefectural capital in Japan, with an altitude of 371.4 meters. The city is surrounded by mountains, near the confluence of the Chikuma River - the longest and widest river in Japan - and the Sai River. As of 1 June 2019, the city had an estimated population of 370,632 in 160,625 households, and a population density of 444 persons per km² The total area of the city is 834.81 square kilometres.
  Nagano City, located in the former Shinano Province, developed from the Nara period as a temple town. The city of Nagano is home to Zenkō-ji, a 7th-century Buddhist temple that is listed as a Japanese national treasure. Zenkō-ji was established in its current location in 642 AD. The location of Zenkō-ji is approximately 2 kilometers from the present-day central Nagano Station. During the Sengoku Period, the Age of Warring States, Nagano was the site of a series of battles, the Battles of Kawanakajima, between 1553 and 1564.
context_section_description: Nagano, along with the neighboring communities of Hakuba village, Nozawaonsen, Yamanouchi, Iizuna, and Karuizawa hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics from February 7 to February 22 and the Paralympics from March 5 to March 14. This was the third Olympic Games and second Winter Olympic Games to be held in Japan, after the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo (the first Winter Games ever held in Asia). As of 2019, Nagano was the southernmost host of the Winter Olympic Games. The Nagano Olympic Commemorative Marathon is held annually to commemorate the occasion.
  One important legacy of the Games was an improved transportation network. In order to improve access to Nagano in advance of the Games, Nagano was linked to the high-speed shinkansen train network. The Nagano Shinkansen, now the Hokuriku Shinkansen was inaugurated five months before the start of the Games, and during the Winter Olympics carried 655,000 passengers In addition, both Nagano Station and Shinonoi Station were expanded, and Imai Station in the Kawanakajima area was built to access the Athletes village. Finally, the Nagano Expressway and the Jōshin-etsu Expressway were built in the Nagano region, and another 114.9 kilometers of roads within Nagano Prefecture were improved.
  In addition to a transportation legacy, several world-class venues of the 1998 Winter Olympics were built, including M-Wave, Japan's first International Skating Union (ISU) standard indoor 400m double-track, and which happens to be one of the largest hanging wooden roof structures in the world. Finally, the Athletes Village beside the newly constructed Imai Station was built in advance of the Games by the city of Nagano as future public residential housing, and loaned to the Nagano Olympic Organizing Committee during the Games. A Media Village, composed of a four-block 10-12 storey apartment complex named Asahi Danchi, was built in the Asahi district of Nagano, across the street from the M-Wave. Asahi Danchi now includes private sector housing as well as housing for government employees.
caption: Asagawa Loop Line to Iizuna Kogen Ski Area built in preparations for the 1998 Winter Olympics
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